Search for "booking cheap tickets through partner airlines phone number 1-800-299-7264"

LGBT’s, Opponents Prep for Vatican Synod; UN Rights Council Adopts LGBT Resolution; Brazil’s Evangelicals Eye Presidency; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…liticians. The Santiago Times’ Laurie Blair reports this week that a civil partnership law is stirring passionate debate and facing fierce opposition in the country’s Senate. According to the paper, LGBT advocates have praised the proposed Life Partner Agreement (AVP), “which would represent Chile’s first legal recognition of homosexual couples.” Opening the discussions Tuesday, Socialist Party (PS) Sen. Fulvio Rossi described the occasion as “a h…

Catholics Talk About Sex

By Kate Ott

…decision about any sexual behavior that includes protecting one’s self and partner from disease or pregnancy is a moral good. Educating the Whole Person It may be that Pope Benedict XVI is in agreement. On November 21, 2010, Catholics for Choice reported that the Pope Benedict XVI, in a book-length interview, said that condom use to prevent the transmission of HIV is “a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more humane sexuality.” The…

Elections Show Growing Support for LGBT from People of Faith

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…em that does not allow them to pass their survivor benefits along to their partners. “You’d be able to take a portion of your Social Security tax dollars and put it into a personal savings account that you could leave to your partner or really anyone that you wanted to – something you’re barred from doing today,” Barron said. Gay and lesbian couples can already invest their money in private retirement accounts. There’s no need to dismantle Social…

Poll: Negative Church Messages Contribute to Gay and Lesbian Suicides

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ling out a “D” and another 16 percent giving an “F.” Those are interesting numbers given that most white evangelical churches are more often than not where some of those “negative” messages about homosexuality emanate from. Yet white evangelicals are pleased with the message they hear about it in their churches. Could it be that they don’t perceive messages that homosexuality is sinful to be “negative” messages, but instead a “positive” message t…

I Am Better than Him

By Amina Wadud

…this religion; I am in this social economic class; I am any category of a number of things: including food consumption. Because I am this or that, then I am better than you. Sure oppression, or zulm, as it’s referred to in the Qur’an, also requires power: the power to exploit the differences as such, but even that is interesting in the way it is discussed in the Qur’an. For one thing, in the Qur’anic stories of Satan (or shaytan as the Arabic pro…

Anti-Gay Groups Running Out of Search Engines

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…or the federal taxes they must pay on when they take advantage of domestic partner health benefits. The perk, however, hasn’t been extended to unmarried heterosexual couples on the payroll, though, for obvious reasons, because heterosexuals “have the option of avoiding the tax by getting married.” Focus cried foul to FoxNews saying: “If Google wants to be truly fair to its employees, it should consider extra compensation to married heterosexuals w…

Ted Haggard’s New Church: Gay-Friendly?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

My partner and I moved from Atlanta to South Carolina not too long after the Episcopal Church ordained Gene Robinson as its first openly gay bishop. Since we were embarking upon a new life in a new place, we decided to check out the Episcopal churches in the area. I sent an email to the rector of the church in the town we would be moving to and asked him if his church was welcoming to gays and lesbians. His response was one that Ted Haggard would…

Defending the Helpless: New Bible Highlights Poverty and Justice

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ans and religious outfits using Jesus as everything from a wealth building partner, to a business CEO to a partner in denying equality in all areas of life to other human beings, is it really any surprise that most people don’t know that the in the Bible God has a definite preference for the poor and outcast? Jesus’ message of helping the least of these has been so co-opted by the religious right and conservative politicians that the American Jesu…

Will Hate Crime Laws Redeem Us All?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…In Atlanta, especially in places like Midtown, walking around holding your partner’s hand was relatively safe. You may get someone making a hateful comment as they drive by, but by and large, no one gave you a second glance. Where my partner and I lived however was not Midtown Atlanta, even though it was the hamlet made famous in the film adaptation of Fannie Flagg’s “Fried Green Tomatoes.” Idgie’s childhood home, and the railroad tracks where the…

Bishop John Shelby Spong Declares Victory: Is it Premature?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ishment for those who may attack or kill us just because we are gay. If my partner dies, I cannot collect her Social Security, and inheritance taxes will probably force me to sell our house and other property just to pay the government when she’s gone. Yes, I do believe these things will be rectified in time, but I often wonder if it will be in my lifetime. I wish I could be as confident as Spong. I do, however, agree that the gay and lesbian comm…